Elizabeth Ward, a speech and hard of hearing teachers in Madison County, Kentucky, gave a program to the Kiwanis Club of Richmond on working with speech and hard of hearing students in the Madison County School District.

Ward pointed out that hearing aids are inclined not only to increase the sounds of the things students need to hear - but also they also increase collateral sounds that compete with those things students should be hearing.

As part of her presentation she requested the purchase and donation of two Reliability Direct AR824 Multi-Range Sound Level Meters which each speech and hard of hearing teachers in the school district could use to help identify and reduce collateral sounds as well as to demonstrate levels of sounds as part of their classroom curriculum and in teacher in-service training.

The Board of Directors of the Kiwanis Club of Richmond agreed to purchase one Sound Level Meter and the club also submitted a grant proposal to the Kentucky-Tennessee Kiwanis Foundation to purchase a similar item to fill their request. The K-T District is committed to provide supporty for hearing impaired young children.